Tech
NYT Pips hints, answers for September 29, 2025
Happy Saturday and welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 29 Pips
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally.
Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically; 1-0, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically; 0-3, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 29 Pips
Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 2-0, placed vertically; 1-1, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this red space must be equal to 4. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this blue space must add to 5. The answer is 3-0, placed vertically.
Equal (5): Everything in this green space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed vertically.
Equal (4): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 6. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for Sept. 29 Pips
Number (6): Everything in this space must add to 6. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add to 3. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 1-1, placed horizontally.
Equal (5): Everything in this red space must be equal to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-5 placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this dark blue space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-3, horizontally; 3-5, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically.
Equal (4): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 4-1, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally.
Number (18): Everything in this space must add to 18. The answer is 5-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add to 0. The answer is 5-0, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Tech
ChatGPT can now generate visuals for math and science lessons

If you're stumped by an abstract math problem or a complicated physics concept, ChatGPT can help.
Announced today, OpenAI's chatbot can now generate interactive visuals in response to prompts on math and science questions, including dynamic, customizable graphs, diagrams, and geometric renderings. Once generated, users can adjust variables and manipulate formulas directly in the chat and watch the visuals change in real-time.
For now, visual explanations are available for 70 "core concepts" in science and math, including specific physics and geometric formulas like the Pythagorean theorem, Charles’ and Ohm's laws, kinetic and potential energy, and more. The subjects are curated for high school and college-age learners, OpenAI says, and the company plans to expand the feature with additional subjects in the future.

Credit: OpenAI
ChatGPT fields math and science questions from 140 million users each week, according to parent company OpenAI. Last year, the company launched Study Mode, a toggle-on ChatGPT experience designed to act more like an AI tutor rather than an all-around helper. With Study Mode on, ChatGPT is instructed not to give direct solutions but to encourage a more socratic style of learning. In Mashable's tests, however, the chatbot still provided answers, even when unprompted.
Dynamic visuals aren't a Study Mode-only feature, however, and the company told Mashable that the experience was designed and tested using the standard ChatGPT mode. Math and science visuals will appear across all ChatGPT experiences and plans, and are available now.
Tech
Pokémon TCG: First Partner Illustration Collection Series 1 preorders are live at Amazon — buy now for under $70
TL;DR: The Pokémon TCG First Partner Illustration Collection Series 1 is available to preorder at Amazon for under $70. That's below market value ahead of the March 20 release date.
Finding new Pokémon products for anywhere near market value is always a challenge. Finding Pokémon preorders for a good price is almost impossible. But every now and then, a leading retailer gives trading card enthusiasts something to celebrate.
The Pokémon TCG First Partner Illustration Collection Series 1 is available to preorder at Amazon for under $70. Why is that price significant? It's below market value. Only just below market value, but below market value all the same. When it comes to Pokémon, you should jump at anything close to market value from Amazon. It doesn't happen that often.
This popular preorder celebrates the bond between Trainer and Pokémon with a booster pack containing three of nine illustration rare-style promo cards. These consisting of beloved first partner Pokémon from the Kanto, Sinnoh, or Alola region. You’ll also get two more Pokémon TCG booster packs and a fun sticker sheet featuring first partner Pokémon friends. It's a fun bundle for collectors to shop this weekend.
Score the best Pokémon TCG First Partner Illustration Collection Series 1 preorder deal at Amazon.
Tech
See the 163 new emoji available in iOS 26.4 beta 4
Apple's latest iOS beta — 26.4 beta 4 — rolled out this week and came with a serious upgrade in emoji.
Your mileage may vary on what's technically new, but iOS 26.4 beta 4 brings a total of 163 new emoji designs. There are 13 truly new emoji concepts (which we've seen before), and then 150 new skin tone variations for the existing wrestling and people with bunny ears emoji.
The emoji-focused resource, Emojipedia, helpfully published a first look at all the new emoji. They appear to be variations on the new emojis introduced by Unicode — the nonprofit that standardizes digital characters — last year.

Credit: Unicode
The new concepts, as shown above, include a distorted face, a so-called fight cloud, a bigfoot-esque creature (technically, it's known as the "hairy creature"), an orca, a landslide, a treasure chest, and a ballerina in various skin tones. These are long-expected updates to emoji, as we covered back in 2025, but now they're starting to roll out.
Hairy creature, aka Bigfoot, appears to be the most anticipated of the new emoji. Personally, I think the fight cloud emoji has a bright future, especially for anyone who loved Saturday morning cartoons back in the day.
To see all the new emoji introduced in iOS 26.4, head to Emojipedia.
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